PROFESSIONAL LEFTISTS JUMP ON 'DUMP TRUMP' BANDWAGON

July 1, 2015

By Aaron Klein

Now that both Univision and NBC have severed ties with Donald Trump in response to his remarks about Mexican immigrants, activists are setting their sights on the mogul’s business relationship with Macy’s Inc., urging the department store chain to “Dump Trump” as well.

A closer look at the leaders of the anti-Trump campaign reveals it is not the grassroots protest movement it claims to be. Rather, the “Dump Trump” operation is organized by professional progressive agitators with a history of dubious anti-conservative campaigning, including charges of misleading the public about the actual numbers of protest supporters.

Trump is a Macy’s merchandizing partner and occasional spokesman. Trump’s menswear line sells cologne, shirts, ties and other clothing and apparel while Trump himself has been featured in Macy’s television commercials. Macy’s has held major Trump-themed events at its flagship story at Herald Square in New York.

MoveOn.org, financed by billionaire George Soros, posted an online petition directed at Terry J. Lundgren, chairman of the Board, CEO, director and president of Macy’s Inc. The petition, which boasts of more than 709,000 online signatures, complains, “Donald Trump does not reflect ‘the magic of Macy’s.’ We urge you to sever ties with him.”

That petition was written by Angelo Carusone, executive vice president of the heavily Soros-financed progressive activist group Media Matters. Carusone has been identified in establishment media reports as the man behind the campaign targeting Trump’s relationship with Macy’s.

Indeed, Carusone first drafted his anti-Trump petition back in 2012, when the complaint was also sponsored by MoveOn.org. The petition accused Trump of repeatedly making “sexist” and “racially charged” remarks.

The activism led to Trump’s attorneys sending Carusone a cease-and-desist letter and threatening to sue him for “not less than” $25 million if the online campaign continued.

The letter charged Carusone had spread misinformation about the size and success of his protest, and it accused the activist and Media Matters of being “an ultra left political group aimed at suppressing free speech by targeting conservative activists and their business partners through baseless threats and intimidation.”

Professional crusader

Carusone is a professional anti-conservative social media crusader. He previously led a successful Twitter-based “StopBeck” effort targeting then-Fox News host Glenn Beck.

And he attempted to get businesses to boycott Rush Limbaugh regarding the radio host’s comments about contraceptives and “reproductive rights” advocate Sandra Fluke.

A report by NewsBusters charged Carusone’s anti-Limbaugh Twitter movement consisted of a “small number of Stop Rush extremists” who launched most of the messages and that “Stop Rush activists are full time extremists, not customers.”

NewsBusters further reported, “Stop Rush tweets often originate from automated software, not people.”

“Media Matters and all these Stop Rush nuts are today’s political version of this scene from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ where the ‘great and powerful Oz’ was revealed to be a fraud – just a guy behind a curtain pulling levers that belched fearsome images and sounds when in fact the whole thing was a fantasy,” NewsBusters continued. “’The Wizard of Oz’ in fact did not exist – and neither does the reality of the Stop Rush effort.”

Carusone told the Washington Post that his campaign targeting Macy’s has gained momentum from NBC’s decision to severe ties with Trump.

“Macy’s always had cover from NBC to the extent that it was willing to maintain that relationship,” Carusone said. “Not only has Macy’s just lost that cover, but NBC made it about values when they made that decision. Now [Macy’s is] on the hook for the same values question.”

‘They’re not sending their best’

NBC announced it was officially distancing itself from Trump following remarks he made about illegal immigrants when he announced his run for president.

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” he said. “They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

In a statement to Fox News.com, Trump labeled NBC as “weak and foolish” for ending its relationship with him.

“If NBC is so weak and so foolish to not understand the serious illegal immigration problem in the United States, coupled with the horrendous and unfair trade deals we are making with Mexico, then their contract violating closure of Miss Universe/Miss USA will be determined in court,” Trump said. “Furthermore, they will stand behind lying Brian Williams, but won’t stand behind people that tell it like it is, as unpleasant as that may be.”

Last week, Univision, the nation’s largest Spanish-language television network, announced it would not air the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, both co-owned by Trump, and will cut future business ties with the mogul in response to his remarks.